DTC Stories

March 8, 2019
Defending the Cause: Building a Life Long Friendship

“God has blessed me just as much as a Mentor Father as he has Treshawn as a Field Buddy”

In February of 2015 Russ Manning signed his first year commitment to his Field Buddy Treshawn at 6:8 Church in Vancouver Washington. Fathers in the Field has a Mentor Father make a 3 year commitment, taken 1 year at a time. Each year starts with a commitment signing ceremony outlining the specific commitments and ends with a yearend celebration trip.

Russ saw the importance of stepping into the life of a fatherless boy because our Heavenly Father calls each of us to Defend the Fatherless (Isaiah 1:17). So he worked hard to get the ministry started at his church and to find a fatherless boy he could help.

Paster Lindner and Treyshawn

I asked Russ to share his journey.

“We really bonded in that first year. There were a few learning curves here and there but it was fun getting to know Tre and interacting with him. We rode bikes, helped people in need and spent a lot of time at church. It was all wonderful but the real treasure was when Tre put his faith in Christ for salvation.

Adding to that blessing was his asking to be baptized. We were just into our second year when I had the privilege of baptizing him. From there his faith just took off and I got the pleasure of being a part of his growth as a Christian.”

“In 2017 we signed our third year commitment and started talking about extending the forgiveness Tre had experienced in Christ to his earthly father. It was here that we started to hit some barriers. His biggest fear was that offering forgiveness to his father would cause offense and destroy any hope of a healthy relationship.

Over the year we talked about how forgiveness is about the state of our heart; about us not holding on to the hurt caused by others because that hurt can destroy us. We had some really amazing talks about the goodness of God and his love for us.”

Helping a fatherless boy hear about salvation in Christ and learning to forgive their earthly father is why I started this ministry.

Hearing that Tre put his faith in Christ, was baptized and is becoming the type of Godly man our country so badly needs made my heart rejoice.

On the flip side there are 13+ million more fatherless boys in our country that need men like Russ to step into their lives and matter greatly.

With your help we can make that happen, contact me today to find out how.